Pipe Shapes

A Look at Old and New

Pipe Shapes

A Brief Exposition and Development

This is a work in progress. I began it a few years ago, and what's currently presented
is that work. Since that time, I've been re-thinking some of the development, the evolution
of the shapes, and will be essentially starting over during the coming weeks. There will be
new photographs, and new ideas. In the interim,
I've simply migrated the existing pages to the new format. Stay tuned...

The Classic Shapes

The pipes
shown here are what I consider excellent examples of a particular
shape, or, at least, a good representation of the shape. As new shapes
are represented in my collection, the list will grow. I anticipate this being a
long term project!

Danish Neo-Classic Shapes

These freehand shapes muddy the waters of taxonomy.

First, the term freehand rquires a working definition. My
learned friend Tarek Manadily feels, and I agree, that the term
"freeform" should be applied to pipes that have no
obvious shape label, while "freehand" is more appropriately
applied to pipes that are interpretations of well classified
shapes. The shapes discussed here are, to my eye, well defined,
though sometimes difficult to describe in terms of the classical
shapes.

If we take a somewhat phylogenetic approach to defining specific
taxa, seeking some sort of common ancestry for the classification
of an individual shape, it becomes clear that shapes like the
Blowfish can be categorized, even if not easily defined.
Showing representative examples is informative, while simultaneously
exhibiting the diversity of the group. Each individual is quite
different from the others, much more so than any group of Billiards,
for instance, but their relatedness is readily apparent. Other
freehand shapes are somewhat less diverse, so it's relatively
easy to choose representatives to depict the group.

A shape name is more akin to a Genus than to a species, I
think. Tracking the evolution of shapes is an interesting exercise,
while creating a clearly defined taxonomy proves difficult, especially
among the "modern" shapes. I adopted the term "neo-classical"
to provide a convenient niche for some of these shapes that have
become more or less common in the modern vernacular of the pipe
maker.